Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jul 2014
Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, FL)
Copyright: 2014 Frank Filiberto
Contact: http://www.floridatoday.com/content/forms/services/letters.shtml
Website: http://www.floridatoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/532
Author: Frank Filiberto

DOCTOR'S LETTER ABOUT MARIJUANA MISLEADING

The recent letter, "Where's the scientific proof of pot's benefits?"
by a local physician was extremely informative but misleading.

The writer, Dr. John C. Lozito, is a well-respected physician whose
integrity is beyond reproach. However, there are times when one's
objectivity is clouded by trying to maintain the status quo. Dr.
Lozito argues against medical marijuana because of the lack of
scientific evidence.

My response is that for more than 2,000 years, no drug has withstood
the scrutiny that cannabis has. The scientific conclusions of the
overwhelmingly majority of modern research directly conflict with the
federal government's stance that cannabis is a highly dangerous substance.

For example, in February 2010, investigators at the University of
California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research announced the
finding of a series of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials
on the medical utility of inhaled cannabis. These studies, which
utilized the so-called gold standard FDA clinical trial design,
concluded that marijuana ought to be a "first-line treatment" for
patients with neuropathy and other serious illnesses.

What strikes me is Dr. Lozito, being a neurologist, may have hinted to
literature in his gold standard study but has ignored the study that
truly would help his patients. With cannabis' safety record, why would
any doctor throw the baby out with the bath water? Regarding his claim
there is no such thing as medical marijuana, Dr. Lozito fails to
recognize different strains for different maladies and quality control
that goes into securing the proper ratio of THC/CBD.

Dr. Frank Filiberto, Melbourne 
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